Any Hope for Small Market Baseball Teams?

[VirtualSmitty]

There's plenty of hope for small market teams. The Rays, Marlins, and Rockies have shown they can hang with bigger market teams. It takes better planning, better drafting, better scouting, and smarter spending. Teams like the Reds, Royals, and Pirates have only themselves to blame for sucking as long as they have. All three have produced a ton of talent but failed to go anywhere with it. And small market teams get revenue sharing from large market teams. Having a huge payroll doesn't equal success, if that were true the Yanks would have never stopped winning.

[yourchoice]

I don't think there is any long-term hope. The Expos were the best team in baseball developing their talent...but once their talent was developed and ready to compete for a title, they became free agents and the Expos couldn't afford them.

Do the Marlins, Rays, Rockies, etc. success prove you can develop a winning baseball team? Yes. But in the long run they cannot remain competitive because they can't compete salary-wise. The Phillies have a top 10 payroll (not sure where exactly), but I will not begin to suggest the system, as is, is fair to smaller market teams.

Some sort of salary cap is needed IMHO.

[yourchoice]

Oh....and with a salary cap, there needs to be a salary minimum too. Teams at the bottom shouldn't just be able to suck along while getting their shared revenues (TV, etc.)

[Starscream]

Originally Posted by yourchoice

Oh....and with a salary cap, there needs to be a salary minimum too. Teams at the bottom shouldn't just be able to suck along while getting their shared revenues (TV, etc.)

I agree, but I don't want to see another players strike. Can't win for losing.

[VTDragon]

I'm a long time Red Sox fan and they do benefit from the current system. However for the good of baseball, I think there should be a HARD salary cap on all of MLB, along with a HARD CAP on what teams can spend to support their minor league systems. Without that, big market teams will just switch where they are spending their money from the major league level to the minors thus perpetuating the problem. I also agree that a major league minimum salary needs to be in effect so that teams don't just reap the excess profits while vastly underspending the cap. The NFL does it right, Selig should take a page from their playbook.

[VirtualSmitty]

Salary cap would be bad for baseball, I cringe every time I hear it. A few injuries throughout the course of the season and just like football it's maybe next year fans. Except baseball is 162 games as opposed to 16 for football. Small market teams are already getting millions of dollars in revenue sharing, the system isn't perfect but it works. And if you look at the WS winners for the last 16 seasons you've got ten different winners. The only sport with a higher count is the NFL with twelve.

Not like this is ever going to happen though. The MLB players union won't have it, small market owners don't want (why lose all that money they are getting from revenue sharing, they aren't going to make that up in fan attendance), and large market teams don't mind paying the luxury tax. So keep dreaming.

If there is anything I want to see reformed it's the way players from foreign countries are signed.

Originally Posted by VirtualSmitty

Salary cap would be bad for baseball, I cringe every time I hear it. A few injuries throughout the course of the season and just like football it's maybe next year fans. Except baseball is 162 games as opposed to 16 for football. Small market teams are already getting millions of dollars in revenue sharing, the system isn't perfect but it works. And if you look at the WS winners for the last 16 seasons you've got ten different winners. The only sport with a higher count is the NFL with twelve.

Not like this is ever going to happen though. The MLB players union won't have it, small market owners don't want (why lose all that money they are getting from revenue sharing, they aren't going to make that up in fan attendance), and large market teams don't mind paying the luxury tax. So keep dreaming.

If there is anything I want to see reformed it's the way players from foreign countries are signed.

Why is this the argument that comes up everytime someone mentions a salary cap for MLB? The NFL has a salary cap and still has a revenue sharing program. So it's not like you can't have one without the other. Hell it would make more sense to go with an NFL like program because then small market teams have a chance at winning the WS and filling seats and they still get their checks from profit sharing.

Other than the union there is absolutely no legitimate reason why MLB wouldn't be better off with a salary cap. And we all know how good unions are for the US. Hell look at how good Ford and the rest of American car makers are doing.

There is a reason why baseball is no longer the biggest sport in America. It's slow, and it's not competitive on a large country wide standpoint. The only chance baseball has at securing a future is to inact some kind of salary cap and start letting small market teams be more competitive.

[Starscream]

Originally Posted by VirtualSmitty

Teams like the Reds, Royals, and Pirates have only themselves to blame for sucking as long as they have.